Through an in-depth case study of the black professional middle class in Oakland, this book provides an analysis of the experiences of black professionals in the workplace, community, and local politics. Brown shows how overlapping dynamics of class formation and racial formation have produced historically powerful processes of what he terms "racialized class formation," resulting in a distinct (and internally differentiated) entity, not merely a subset of a larger professional middle class.

Through an in-depth case study of the black professional middle class in Oakland, this book provides an analysis of the experiences of black professionals in the workplace, community, and local politics. Brown shows how overlapping dynamics of class formation and racial formation have produced historically powerful processes of what he terms "racialized class formation," resulting in a distinct (and internally differentiated) entity, not merely a subset of a larger professional middle class.

The west was a land of opportunity. It offered the chance of a new beginning and Ray sorely needed one. His dark past would soon be left far behind, but. . . the west also held dangers that no one could have foreseen. The wagon train rolled on, wary of an attack by warring Indians, straight into the den of the beasts. At night, the Sasquatch came seeking blood and the journey west quickly became a struggle for survival.